Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

ULAN BATOR, Nov 1 (NNN-XINHUA) – Mongolia’s National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, today issued a warning of blizzards and a cold wave that will affect western and central parts of the country.

Volatile weather is expected to start today, and continue in the next few days, causing icy roads and poor visibility on roads, the weather monitoring agency said.

It warned the public, especially nomadic herders and drivers, to take extra precautions against possible disasters.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia commends the 121 countries that had the courage to stand up for humanity and supported the resolution on Gaza proposed by Jordan, co-sponsored by 46 countries including Malaysia, calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

ASTANA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday on the first leg of a trip to Central Asia, a region long regarded as Russia's backyard which has drawn fresh Western attention since the war in Ukraine began.

Oil-rich Kazakhstan has already emerged as a replacement supplier of crude to European nations turning off Russian supply and an important link in the new China-Europe trade route bypassing Russia.

SEOUL, Oct 31 (Reuters) - North Korea is poised to close as many as a dozen embassies including in Spain, Hong Kong, and multiple countries in Africa, according to media reports and analysts, in a move that could see nearly 25 percent of Pyongyang's missions close worldwide.

North Korea's recent closing of its diplomatic missions was a sign that the reclusive country is struggling to make money overseas because of international sanctions, South Korea's unification ministry said on Tuesday.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s top spy agency believes North Korea sent more than a million artillery shells to Russia since August to help fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, according to a lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing Wednesday with intelligence officials.

BEIJING, Oct 31 (APP): China promoted Belt and Road cooperation through foreign aid over the past 10 years and conducted 2,000 projects across the world, Luo Zhaohui, head of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), said on Tuesday.

HANOI, Oct 31 (NNN-VNA) – Two people died and another remains missing, after they were swept away by floods, yesterday, in Vietnam’s central province of Ha Tinh, according to the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

Among the three victims, two women, aged 29 and 33, were swept away on their way home through a rainstorm after work in Huong Khe. Another dead victim was a 13-year-old boy.

Vietnam’s central region experienced torrential rain over the past two days, under the influence of cold air and high-altitude eastern winds.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia strongly rejects all forms of terrorism and categorically condemns the actions of killing innocent lives and taking women and children as hostages in Palestine, announced Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. 

TOKYO, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A suspected gunman took at least two people hostage in a post office in Japan after wounding two other people in a shooting at a hospital, authorities and media said on Tuesday.

The government of the city of Warabi, just north of Tokyo, said in a statement an undetermined number of hostages were taken by a man "in possession of something like a handgun".

BEIJING (AP) — The remains of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are to be cremated on Thursday, with flags around the country to be flown at half-staff to mourn the official who helped guide the world’s second-largest economy for a decade.

Li died Friday of a heart attack at 68. Mourners gathered at his childhood home in the city of Hefei in an apparently spontaneous outpouring of grief seen by some as a rebuke of state leader and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping.